The Early Process

The refugee crisis in Europe is urgent and ever changing, especially in our particular area of interest, Lesvos, Greece. The Greek Island has been serving as one of the busiest transit points for many refugees and asylum seekers fleeing the Middle East and North African regions - predominantly those from Afghanistan and war torn Syria. Many arrive to Greece seeking reprieve and safety within European borders, usually later making their way further north to countries such as Germany.

Because of the major activity happening on Lesvos, it has in turn become a hotspot for much legal and administrative volatility – making it a challenging environment to work in. At first, our team had hoped to work directly with the refugees, in particular women and children, aiming to resolve some of their vocalized vulnerability in the island’s refugee camps. Since then, it has become reportedly much more difficult to freely interact with the refugees on the island, rendering our initial idea at a bit of a halt.

During our last few brainstorming sessions however, we quickly realized that another “stab” at the major issues could be in supporting the island of Lesvos itself so that it can continue to be a safe and clean place for refugees to arrive to and locals to continue inhabiting. Since then we have investigated the possibility of collecting research regarding up-cycling options for the materials found in life jackets (hundred of thousands of which are currently abandoned on the island posing an ecological “Time Bomb”). Article from Aljazeera here.

With our upcoming trip, just 9 days away, we hope to better understand the situation first-hand: by gaining the experience of what people need, what are the resources on the island, a rough estimate of the amount of life jackets, and most importantly, what initiatives are already active in this particular effort. With this information we hope to return to Helsinki with a better idea of what kind of up-cycling product or service we can design or offer.